Mataranka is not big, but at this time of the year it certainly bustles. Tourists flock here to wallow in the hot springs. Like us, many stay for a few days, others pop in for a quick splash.
The Stuart Highway is the town's main street and it traverses it from one end to the other, gun barrel straight.
The turn off to Bitter Springs and our camp is at this northern end of the town
just beyond which, and on the same side of the highway, is the open space of the Stan Martin park. As you might imagine, Stan was a local 'doer' of significance over many years.
And here we find a reminder of other locals, two who arrived well before Stan. Aeneas Gunn and his wife Jeannie took up residence at the nearby Elsey Station in 1902 where Aeneas had been appointed manager. He unfortunately died shortly thereafter, but his wife later became famous as the author of what is still regarded as one of the finest books dealing with outback station life.....'We Of The Never Never'.
One of her most endearing characters, 'The Little Black Princess', is also remembered here in the park together with a stockman and Chinese cook. We were to have another encounter with the Gunns later.
and the local school, almost hidden behind a mass of what imagine are most welcome shade trees.
Just beyond the park is one of the biggest small town parking bays we have ever come across. At the time of the morning when I was wandering through the town snapping away things here were relatively quiet,
but that certainly changed later in the day, as it does on most.
One of the most striking features of this park is the huge banyan tree at it northern end.
What, from a distance, looks like an enormous trunk is in fact a mass of trailing roots. As the tree grows and spreads, it sends down these 'prop roots' to support its ever increasing mass of branches and foliage, and as you can see from this example, they can grow to a massive size.
All of Mataranka's business and commercial buildings are lined up on the western side of the main street. They include several service stations, beginning with the most northern of them. Initially I wondered how these would all survive, but as the day wore on the volume of traffic in the town soon answered that question.
The local hotel/motel is an interesting establishment.
We did darken its door on one brief occasion to test the veracity of the sign out the front, but found this to be a questionable assertion. Sadly the interior of the pub did nothing to encourage a second beer.
The motel units next door are equally unpretentious. We were rather glad that this was not our temporary domicile.
Almost completely hidden behind its screen of foliage is the Mataranka Gallery and cafe. Were it not for the garish yellow sign out the front, it would be quite easy to miss this place altogether.
Not so the Mataranka museum, where the flagpoles make quite a statement.
Next to the museum building is another which really caught my eye.....The Rural Transaction Centre no less. What on earth goes on here?
A very strange mix of services, according to the sign at the front. This quaint tin building houses Australia Post, an Internet connection facility, the local library, office services and, just what every local needs, the Australian Taxation Office. What more could you want?
The Mataranka general store (and servo) is a relatively imposing building
standing at the southern end of the main 'Mataranka CBD', from where I took the opportunity to look back north along the highway.
In the park at this end of town one finds a real surprise.....a huge termite mound. I was about to concede that this topped the lot when a close look revealed that it is but a very large replica, one which is accompanied by several information boards.
Although these were suffering a little from wear and tear, they did provide a wealth of information about these industrious little critters whose homes feature so prominently throughout the Australian outback.
Apart from all else on display in the main street of Mataranka at the time of our visit, one feature dominated the scene......hoardings and banners advertising the sale of fireworks! They were everywhere, on the pub
the gem store
and the third service station, to name but three. It seemed that all but a few of the entire Mataranka commercial community was offering fireworks for sale.
This demanded some investigation.....and the answer was......'Territory Day', of course! On 1 July each year the good folk of the Northern Territory gather in all sorts of spots to celebrate the anniversary of the granting of their independence by the Commonwealth.
And they do it with fireworks, publicly and privately. We could not believe the fervour with which the Territorians embrace the opportunity for a good old fashioned 'cracker night'. But there's a catch. All these bangers, roman candles, sky rockets and pin wheels can only be bought on one day, the day itself, 1 July. So every business which stocks these personal incendiaries advertises like mad with large and colourful signs (as we saw) in the hope that theirs will be the place where many will make their once a year purchase.
And, in the inconceivable circumstances that any of these little personal packets of gunpowder are not actually ignited and used for the purpose for which they were made, they must by law be returned to the place of purchase........right! We heard bangs and thumps for days afterwards.
There is, of course, an annual public argument about the number of fires and personal injuries which result from these festivities, but in true Territory fashion, the official line is "go for it" (or words to that effect). When you spend your life living with crocodiles, venomous snakes and spiders and all sorts of other biting, stinging and life threatening beasts, what are a few burns once a year?
So, in the true tradition of 'when in Rome', we took ourselves off to the Mataranka Territory Day celebrations at the local show grounds where we soon realised that despite the small local population, this promised to be a real treat (the local Fireies were already on stand-by)
In true country style, the show ground was soon ringed by vehicles of all descriptions.
A good range of food was on offer, all catered by a local women's volunteer charity group,
and of course, what's night out without a sideshow or two, which, on my observation, provided a bit of colour but attracted very little business.
As the sun set over the Mataranka treeline the sense of anticipation heightened. What sort of a show would we get here in this tiny town?
In short.....an absolute ripper...twenty minutes of it. This was as good as New Year's Eve at the Bay!
I had to doctor the exposure of this shot somewhat for obvious reasons, but this said it all for us. Two white kids from a nearby cattle station (we had overheard a previous conversation) and their little aboriginal mate, all perched open mouthed on the fence as the night sky exploded with colour and noise.
What a fitting way to end our Mataranka experience, in real time that is. Missive wise, we have yet to visit the competing hot springs of the district which we shall do in our next (now that I've managed to get some of the photos back!!!!)
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